Public Transportation Winfred Harvey Shawn Mallory Ronnie Belvins Stephen Collum Elizabeth Johnson University of Phoenix Ethics and Social Responsibility ETH/316 Gale Francis January 15, 2012 Abstract Public transportation is an important part in any cities future.
By using the public transportation system people are not only being socially responsible but they will be rewarded with less traffic, lower pollution, better service, increased employment, and increased health benefits. Public Transportation Public transportation plays a big role in our social responsibility when living in a large city.The effects of public transportation can be profound. By using public transportation the city will become cleaner and less congested.
Employment will increase and be more effective. The cost of living in a large city may even decrease. All of this can be achieved by riding your cities public transportation. Even though sometimes it is not convenient for many people, public transportation helps reduces the amount motor vehicle pollution emission because it helps the city effort to contribute to cleaner air and it helps reduce the amount of motor vehicles on the roads as a result of growing population.As population growth continues to climb in most inner cities across the nation, the more motor vehicles are on the road operating transporting people to and from various locations.
With the growing concern over air pollution in the United States, most corporate companies today encourage its employees to car pool or use public transportation to get to work. The communities where our families reside are diversified neighborhoods. People in the communities are from various countries, different ages, and various income ranges.Some of those in the communities are retired citizens. Other people in the community work in various different types of field ranges from example; school teachers, business owners, public servants, realtors, oil gas workers, sign builders, railroad workers, and production manufacturing. Many of those in the community interact during an annual state fair every year when many citizens participate in either animal stock shows, or various food competitions.
People in the community also interact during the Fourth of July celebration downtown.There is also an annual Art festival downtown each year and several members of my community interact with each other setting up food stands etc. Located only about two mile from downtown there is a huge parking lot designated for the community workers to park their car and either car pool or ride company vans to work. About ten years ago when the community saw the growing concern over air pollution and population growth, many community members voted to build a parking lot facility to give workers in the community a place to join a ride share.The community felt it was important enough that it gave the city council the challenge to find a location and have a public parking lot build. At the time when the city council was being challenge with building a public parking lot, many community workers already were car pooling to work.
Now that the community population growth has continued to grow, the city and community needs to consider other forms of public transportation. When we analyze the ethical principle used by the community regarding public transportation, we find most citizens look for what is good for the community and the city.The people proactively look for ways to improve means of public transportation getting people to work. Ethical principle is also applied to how the community can contribute to positive effort reducing the amount of pollution in the city.
The community’s motive to build a public parking lot was for the benefit of its community members to do their part in reducing pollution. There is also a benefit and matter of less wear and tear on the individual vehicles. And there is a benefit for those who do not have a vehicle in our community who need to go to and from to work every day.When our community decided to build a public transportation parking lot we think it fits the virtue theory because people were looking at the bigger picture as it applies to its city members. For example, the current bus transportation lines do not accommodate the needs most people have getting to and from to work. The city and community have a social responsibility because many of its community members work so far away from home between 25 – 50 miles.
And the concern over community member’s hardship regarding how they get to work and back was discussed in one of the city council meetings.But the big picture also includes the concern over how the city could help contribute to cleaner air. Public transportation I think is a project that comes up in almost every big city and county across the nation. Utilitarianism also fits the community effort to meet the needs of the community members. Because many community members who do not use car pool or van services, are willing to help in any way can to accommodate those who do. Deontological ethics also fits in the situation regarding my community transportation concerns because there are those who have no need or use for car pooling , as well as public transportation.
I think every individual in my community should have a vested interest the both the issue of air quality and motor vehicle traffic control or congestion. Every individual in our community has a responsibility to help minimize air pollution, because people as individuals contribute to pollution in some form or fashion no matter what community they live in. As a member of my community I think a social responsibility revolves around some activity that contributes to the welfare of society with a benefit to the community.As the population grows in my community the normal work hour’s morning and evening traffic will progressively get worse. Our community should continue its proactive efforts to ward off huge problems revolving around motor vehicle traffic issues as well as issue involving vehicle pollution emission. Public transportation is an issue that each community should look at to determine the needs based of the community members.
But also public transportation is something each community must consider as a possible means to minimize pollution level emission within that community.If the cost of public transportation means adding or increasing city taxes, then I think each community member has a responsibility for the benefit of all members of that community. Conclusion If a large number of people used public transportation cities around the world could see an increase in air quality. Currently there are 134.
9 million cars registered in the US and only 0. 8 million buses. (www. bts.
gov, 2009). The air quality would increase because of the decrease in vehicles that are being used within the cities.This has a twofold effect. First, as mentioned, the air quality would increase.
The amount of air quality increase would depend on the percent of people who use the public transportation on a regular basis. Furthermore, people would become less ill with an increase in air quality. However, this proof would take several years to prove. Moreover, research has shown that people who live outside the city limits have a better quality of air to breathe. The amount of traffic within a city would lessen if more people used public transportation.
Roads within the city would become less congested and allow for traffic to move at a more effective rate. This will decrease the amount of fuel the country uses and help preserve our natural recourses. With the increase in use of public transportation employment in these rolls will increase. Along with the increased employment the public service workers would be able to perform their jobs more effectively.
Less traffic will allow police, firefighters, and drivers to avoid lengthy traffic jams in turn allowing them to respond to the public’s needs in a timely manner.By the use of public transportation taxes within the city may even decrease. The 2011 budget for New York city’s MTA was $11. 8 billion (www. mta.
info). The MTA of New York city is the largest public transportation authority in the US. This service has help keep taxes down within the city. Without this service you would not be able to enter the city.
The MTA provides transportation for almost 8. 5 million people every week (www. mta. info). People think the taxes in NYC are high. However, without this service the taxes would be much higher.
By being socially responsible, people can help save our planet. Using public transportation will help preserve our natural recourses and clean our air. Along with preserving the world employment would increase and our public servants would be able to perform their jobs more efficiently. Lowering costs could be a bi product of people using public transportation.
All of these components contribute to every one’s social responsibility. References: U. S. Department of Transportation (2010). http://www.
bts. gov/publications/state_transportation_statistics/state_transpo
